The Editor,
Re. "Flinn survey says..." (The Tri-City News, Sept. 7).
At its public meeting next Tuesday (city hall, 7 p.m.), Port Moody city council will vote on a motion to remove the designated road right of way through Bert Flinn Park.
Here’s why council should vote vote in favour of this motion.
• The road won't work. The city would have Brilliant Circle Group, the Ioco lands developer, foot the $25-million bill to build the park road supposedly in order to relieve traffic pressure on Ioco Road, which is already too busy. But in return, the developer might expect the city to rezone its land at the west end of Ioco Road to allow denser residential development and services that seem certain to worsen, not lessen, traffic congestion along Ioco Road. Don’t step into that trap.
• It would forever ruin the park. As distinguished local environmentalist Elaine Golds observed, “Putting a road through Bert Flinn would be like driving a stake through its heart.” For many, this park anchors our quality of life on the north shore. The essential attraction of Bert Flinn for its legion of trail runners, mountain bikers, families with small kids and folks walking their dogs is exactly the thing that also unifies its diverse wildlife ecosystem – that is the park’s quiet serenity and undisturbed integrity as a natural refuge from modern city life. Just imagine how the building of a traffic corridor and major bridge across the midsection of Bert Flinn would turn the park into an ugly, messy construction site for years to come. No wonder more than 1,900 local residents have signed our petition at savebertflinnpark.ca to stop the noisy, hectic roadway from ruining the park for coming generations.
• Council would betray its longstanding promise to Port Moody’s citizens to leave green space undisturbed on the north shore in exchange for the public’s support for densification of the city’s downtown area. In the two decades since that trade-off was struck, PoMo’s population has skyrocketed and the city’s population density now exceeds the average for Metro Vancouver by a whopping 60%. Council, don’t backslide now on the city's pledge in a rush to densify the north shore, too. This would threaten the quality of life that makes the north shore among the most desirable places to live anywhere in the lower mainland.
Yes, we do need to improve the transportation grid on Port Moody's north shore over time but surely, working together, we can find more appropriate ways to accomplish this than by devastating Bert Flinn Park.
Hunter Madsen and Jeff Poste, Save Bert Flinn Park
